WordPress 3.0 is Live

It took 218 contributors and 6 months, but WordPress 3.0 is now live with a few new features sure to make publishers and developers happy.

For starters, theme developers get new APIs that allow for custom shortlinks, headers, backgrounds, taxonomies and post types. MU and WordPress have been merged, making it possible to run one blog or several from the same installation.

Users get contextual help on every screen, along with bulk updates. FunnyOrDie.com content is now instantly imbedded through oEmbed. Comments can be adjusted and blocked for future and password-protected posts. Custom taxonomy UI now works for both pages as well as posts. Blogs can also be created with no role assigned.

There are quite a few new features for WordPress 3.0, all of which are meticulously detailed here. The team that oversaw 3.0 is taking few months off of their development cycle to focus on community surrounding WordPress.